


What Mercy Is For

by Ma_Kir



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cobra Kai (Web Series) Spoilers, Cobra Kai Alternative Founder, Gen, John Kreese Has PTSD, John Kreese Isn't a Bad Guy, Past John Kreese/Betsy Nichols, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, snake - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:48:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28589796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ma_Kir/pseuds/Ma_Kir
Summary: After being frustrated by Mr. Miyagi's lessons, Daniel seeks guidance from another martial artist, who tells him more than he wants to know.An alternative reality Karate Kid vignette, with Spoilers from Cobra Kai Season Three.
Relationships: John Kreese & Daniel LaRusso, John Kreese & Jack Pierce, John Kreese & Mr. Miyagi, John Kreese & Terry Silver, John Kreese/Betsy Nichols
Kudos: 10





	What Mercy Is For

Hey kid. Yeah. The Old Man told me you might be coming by. 

Nah. None that Mister, or Captain jazz. Just call me John. Just John.

C'mon. Sit down. I'd get you some brewskys, but pop'll do, right? Yeah, I thought so. I can't talk too long though, kid. Got some maintenance at the school at 0800. That damned Lawrence kid and his cronies again. Damn kids. No offense, pal, but a lot of you are a bunch of little shits: specially at this age. 

Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. Lawrence and his crew did a number on you. How did you know about ...

Right.   
  
Silver.

Enjoy your Coke. This might take a little bit, but I got to be up early, remember? So sit back, shut up for a while, and listen, cause I'm going to get real.

Yeah. I was in the Army, in 'Nam before I got back to the old US of A. Had a single mom, just like you. She was ... she was sick. Yeah. Not the sick you get from cancer, or diabetes, but the kind of sick that messes with your brain. When you're a kid, you don't get that. Hell, most people don't get it at all. It's like she didn't die all at once, but a little bit at a time, each day. Every day. 

Just like every day those punk kids took a shot at me. Called me a freak. A freak just like my Mom. I got the crap beaten out of me every day in junior high. And no one did anything about it. Nothing. Nobody talked about that kind of thing, you know? I think you do know, kid. Not much difference between now, and then except less malt shops. Yeah. I learned how to fight. I had no choice. Just like you, I guess. That's why you're hear, when the Old Man ...

He's got some impressive moves on him, doesn't he? 

I guess we hang out together, sometimes, because we both saw some action. Him earlier than me. Hell, even before my old C.O. Captain only served in Korea. That Old Man though, heh. Likes his tea, but you haven't seen him at the sake. One night, we drank some and ... I don't remember a lot about that night. Yeah, he's done some part-time work at the school. I recommended him. It's least I could ...

You want to beat the shit out of those little assholes, don't you? Yeah. I know that feeling. I did too. And you know, I got good at it. Got scrappy. I can see some of that in you. 

No. I didn't meet the Old Man in 'Nam. Don't think he went back after ... Nah. That's not my story to tell. You'll have to ask him yourself. Which I guess is hard since he doesn't want to teach you to kick ass, and take names, right?  
  
Let me tell you something, kid. I don't care what those frames say on my wall. Or those medals. You want to learn how to fight? Wait until you're older, and you enlist. I'm not teaching anybody anything. 

Basic training. That's all you need. You don't want anything else. Trust me. You think you want a battle, but what you will get is a war.   
  
And nobody wins a war. 

Ha. A wise guy, huh? Sure, why don't you go through boot-camp, get on some foreign soil, watch your buddies get blown up, and get caught by some Viet Cong, and you can tell me all about what you think war is, kid.   
  
Ugh. I need another can.   
  
Yeah. That was a lot. You're new here. I hear you got a girl looking out for you. That's better than what I had for a while, and I was already working all kinds of jobs. Just kept to myself. Didn't have many friends until 'Nam. I didn't have a girl either, until ...  
  
Ahh. I'm not even mad at you, kid. No. I see it. I see how pissed you are. No father anymore. Your Mom going through stuff. Everyone against you, right? 

You can still play your cards right. The Old Man's looking out for you.

What's it to me? Hell, kid. You came here, to my place. To this shitty apartment. I didn't ask you here. You want to be here, and Christ only knows why. It's because you saw me with him a few times? Or Silver again?   
  
Fucking Silver. Fucking Silver, and his games.

You didn't hear that swearing from me, kid. Silver. Terry Silver. I knew him when he was a scrawny, thin kid just out of school and nearly shitting himself in the jungle. He was my best friend, in 'Nam. Him, and Ponytail and ... Shit, I don't think I've drank nearly enough to go into that. He changed. We all changed. You change after you learn how to fight, after you fight in a war. You don't come back the same, kid. 

You're not what you left to be. 

You want to impress the girl? Ah. Ali Mills was Lawrence's girl. Hey. Don't get all defensive. You knew what you were getting into. Is this to impress her? Trust me, kid. She won't be. Girls like her never are. They don't want you, for that. They ...  
  
If I'm not giving you combat instruction, I'm sure as hell not going to give you some girl advice. Read a magazine, for chrissakes. Get a centerfold if you can't handle it. Don't mind me, kid. I get crabby when I'm buzzed. No. I'm not drunk. Trust me, you'd know if I was drunk because I'd be telling you be getting the hell out of here so I can earn my next hangover in peace, and I don't really feel like getting there tonight, if that's all the same to you.   
  
So let me get this straight. You and the Old Man went to that Dojo, and after putting you through some paces you have no clue what he's doing and Silver's telling you that I can help: so you can have a chance against his students? The story checking out so far?  
  
Yeah. Let me tell you about Terry Silver. He and I go way back. We trained together in 'Nam. Smart motherfucker. Likes to use his brain a lot. It helps you stay alive. He, me, and Ponytail -- some other guys -- we were part of a platoon. They were the friends, the brothers, I never had back in peacetime. I had in my head that I'd be better. Stronger. Make a new first impression. Kind of like what you're trying to do. But I was going to do my time, and come back a hero.   
  
A hero ...  
  
We trained under a mean son of a bitch named Turner. He was a Captain. We all looked up to him. He'd seen some shit. Learned Tang Soo Do from Master Kim Sun-Yung. We were getting briefed on a mission, to blow a base in North Vietnam. No tags. No insignias. If we were captured, we'd be fucked. He kicked our asses. Told us, if we fucked up the mission, he'd kill us himself. And I believed him. But I wanted my Beret. I was going to come home, and show people I was something. That I wasn't trash. That I made something of myself.   
  
He was really pissed when Command assigned another senior officer to us. He outranked Turner too. We got some more training. But it was different. It was more self-defense, the way Karate's supposed to be taught, or what passes for it in schools these days in America. Breathing. Meditation. A lot of us laughed, but it's good to be relaxed and know your mind, especially when you're under fire. It was a lot like Aikido, using your own opponent's force against him if you even know what I mean. Or the Tai-Chi so popular these days. Can't argue with results, though. Turner didn't like him. Not one bit. I think he thought it undermined him.   
  
Turner was all about getting the mission done. At any cost. And you didn't fuck up. And there were always acceptable losses. Acceptable casualties. But our other commanding officer, was old school. You've heard it: never leave a man behind.   
  
It was going to be a clusterfuck. But our new C.O. was good. Fast. I was better with Turner's teaching, but I saw the results.   
  
We got captured. We were captured because, at the end the day, Ponytail took too long at the outpost and I couldn't ... detonate the bombs. He was my friend, you know? Me and Silver couldn't do it.   
  
And the Viet Cong caught us.   
  
Turner was pissed at us. Tried to save my buddies, you know. But hey.   
  
Mercy's for the weak, right?  
  
They made us ... after they questioned us -- _very_ thoroughly -- they made us fight each other. To the death. Turner was pissed at us. Our C.O. though, he was trying to talk us down, to make us remember our training, to find that place in our heads that they couldn't touch. I helped best I could. Those fuckers killed Ponytail. And then just had us fight over a pit ...  
  
No. That's too much. Like I said, I have work tomorrow and not enough beer for this. No. I'm ok. But this really isn't something kids like you should hear. Hey. Don't worry about me. I was ...   
  
I was lucky.

Well, I guess we came this far, right? So, Charlie -- slang for those motherfuckers -- came for Silver next. They were going to make him fight our C.O. He didn't have a chance. I saw how our C.O. moved. How he fought. We'd come up from boot-camp together. I wasn't going to let Silver get fucked. I still had hope, even after all that shit. I took his place.  
  
I didn't want to fight him either, kid. I remember Turner yelling after us. He was shouting. Telling the Captain I was a disappointment. And it wasn't as though I had anything to live for. Captain told Turner to shut the hell up.   
  
We were ... over a pit, right? Except, it was filled with snakes. Yeah. You heard me. Snakes. When one of us lost, we would fall. It was that simple.   
  
I didn't know what Turner was talking about. The Captain told me to ignore him. To ignore everyone. To just concentrate on the fight.   
  
I didn't want to fight him. He was a good man. Charlie wanted blood, but Charlie could go fuck himself. I wasn't going to spill American blood in their account. And that's when ... he did it. The Captain told me, as he was dodging me, that I'd got a letter. Before we left.   
  
I had a girl back home. Met her at a diner I was working at. Her boyfriend slapped her around. I wasn't going to take that shit. I beat the fuck out of him, and we went steady after that. That's what we called back then. I was going to basic training to get a better education. To come back a war hero. I was going to put a ring on her. Our lives were going to start.  
  
And while I was away in 'Nam, playing soldier, she got into a car crash. And died.   
  
I was in these jungles, in a War that had nothing to do with our country, and the woman I loved the most in the fucking world died. And I wasn't there to ...  
  
I almost didn't do anything. I just went to my knees. It hurt my guts. It felt like my chest was going to explode from the pain. Captain told me to get up. To keep fighting. He said, if it helped. He knew. He and Turner. They didn't tell me so I could do the mission. They lied to me. He told me to be angry. He said I should hit him.  
  
And I did.  
  
I hit him. Ugh. I hit him again. And again. And again. He didn't even try to counter or attack. He just blocked, or took the hits. He wasn't fighting back, but I didn't care. All this time, I trusted them. I trusted him. I did everything right. I did the training, I didn't talk, I saved my friends, I served my country and this was all I got? Watching my buddy get shot in the face? Watching my brothers have to kill each other for Charlie's jollies? My C.O. lying to me? My girl -- the only thing getting me through this tropical hell -- dead in the place where she should have been safe?   
  
I didn't even notice when the choppers came in. Or the explosions. Or all those dead Viet Cong motherfuckers. I just got ... so tired.   
  
I guess I lost my balance. I almost fell off the bridge. I was barely hanging on. Those snakes were hissing at me. I was so fucking tired, kid. I had my heart ripped out of me, and I just wanted it to be over. She was my entire life. I was the one throwing myself into a war on other continent. She shouldn't have died. It should have been me. I _wished_ it'd been me. It would have been so easy, then, to fall into that hissing, dark, abyss and feel nothing ... Nothing ...   
  
But the Captain grabbed my hand. He told me I had more service left. I didn't give a shit. He said my brothers still needed me.   
  
And then, I think ... it's been a while now, you understand. It was when he said she wouldn't want this. I remembered. I remembered what I promised her.   
  
That I'd come back.  
  
We got out of that hellhole. We got everyone out of that bamboo cage. My buddies, the squad later called us heroes. Silver said he'd do anything for me.   
  
I didn't feel anything.   
  
Don't look at me like that. Don't feel sorry for me. Shit happens. I got over it. As much as anyone does. Captain made sure I got that promotion, whatever Turner said. He ... he made sure I got leave. I went back to my girl's folks back home. Got to the funeral. I got to say goodbye.   
  
And I came back. Captain made sure I was under his command. Maybe under his watch. There were some psych evals, and he was always there. He didn't have to save me. He could've easily beaten me. Saved himself. Silver wasn't the same. After Ponytail died, he started wearing his hair like him. He got meaner. In war, that's one thing. But he was just using people after. He'd even scam, or rough up the friendlies. And it was hard to know who was a Friendly where we were without making it worse.   
  
After a while I ... couldn't do it anymore. I just got tired of fighting. The demon, the anger I had, just didn't have it in him anymore. One day, Captain took me aside and said he'd talked with our superiors, and I'd be getting an honorable discharge. He was also retiring. The War wasn't going to last much longer. I ended up leaving Silver behind. I think that's what soured a lot of it, when I look at it all now. I didn't want to help him with his schemes. He was dishonorably discharged, the last I heard, but he made enough connections to do really well for himself.   
  
I didn't like how he always mouthed off about our C.O. How it'd been a low blow telling me what he'd said. He never got that the man saved my life.  
  
I don't say this lightly, kid. I don't have a lot of friends these days, never mind someone I'd drink a beer with. But Captain Jack Pierce saved me.   
  
In more ways than one.   
  
I would've come back to the Valley with nothing. But Captain Pierce introduced me to his family. His kid. We continued practicing Karate. It ... helped. With the nightmares. And he told me, when they really got bad, there was a friend of his that could help.  
  
The Old Man.   
  
Pierce saved the Old Man too. And the Old Man taught him what he knew. It seems we both had a lot in common. It's funny. I've been fighting my whole life. And our time practicing together, almost makes me remember what peace really is.   
  
So yeah. Maybe you should pay more attention to what the Old Man is showing you. Hell if I know. He's never made me wash cars, or clean up past the jobs we do together. He has some strange healing techniques from the Far East. And he moves faster than Pierce ever did.   
  
Hey. Hold on. Give me a second. What? Is that dangerous? Nah. _She_ won't bite me. I wouldn't have even gotten her on my own. Silver tried to get me to help him with his Dojo. He named it ... after our time in the pit. Can you fucking believe that? He says he wants to help me. But really, he just wants to relive the "good old days."  
  
He really went all fucked from the War, and profiteered off of all of that. And I just don't want him around.   
  
Anyway, he gave her to me. I thought about taking her to the Zoo. The idiot defanged her too. You know, as if doing that was going to make her any less poisonous.   
  
She won't harm you, kid. I'm keeping her right here, near her case. And besides, I got anti-venom. It's weird. Despite everything, it's good taking care of a pet. Her name's Betsy. Having her on me ... it calms me right down ...  
  
Yeah. Go home.  
  
Enjoy the time with your girl. Make some friends. Don't let Silver or those hoodlums mess with you. Listen to the Old Man, and you'll probably be fine. You don't need to me to teach you.   
  
Trust me, Danny.   
  
After everything, I shouldn't teach anyone. I'm not a teacher. I'm just the lesson.


End file.
